End of term

One of the problems with our group, our church is the fact we run within school term, so at this point we take a break for a couple of weeks, some may see this as being problematic, though who says church must be weekly, we agree that it must be regular, but taking a break gives us a chance to reevaluate.

I have been truly encouraged by the last few weeks and how this grew from nothing to us having a core group, larger than we expected, with a good mix, with signs of young people really exploring, seeing how they are learning to grow as a group from all their different schools, some from churches and friendship groups.

Last night we had a social, a number of challenges to gain points in teams. The aim was to have fun, to show that we can learn from one another doing different things. We split them up with others they didn't know to see them grow in teams, relying on others and showing each other encouragement. It was great to see. Great to see children of God showing each other love and respect, in a time when young people get so much bad press!

We were short on adults to help lead the night, but the young people are taking charge more and more, in some ways scary. They initiate their own games at the start, take responsibility for checking who's there, set up and clear up. They are serving one another in their own group even if they're not using the word 'serving'.

We saw parents and guardians come at the end fro tea and mince pies, a chance for us to talk to them, for them to see a little of what goes on and to forge important relationships. We weer thrilled by how many came.

I'm looking forward to next term as we look at including prayer more in different ways, offering more chances to delve deeper using questions and hope to get them thinking about the wider community.

For some they will see this group as a youth group, but as we become a closer community, both adults and young people, as we seek to explore, pray and reach out we show signs of becoming a form of church which is exciting and relavent for so many who think that church must be boring.

Walk the walk, talk the talk...

So we are well and truly a group moving forward together now. We have settled into a regular group, still finding some coming for a first time ad others dipping in and out. But it has been greatly encouraging to see the group growing from being lots of different groups with those from different schools or church separating themselves to us starting to see them gelling together, and it's great. Young people particularly have an ID when they are in their school uniforms and its great to see them in their own clothes establishing what identity they want to take, and in a group like this seeing characters grow.

We've been really encouraged in the past few weeks, with parents chatting at the end, we are inviting parents in for coffee and mince pies the last session before Christmas, it will be interesting to see if any dynamics change and what conversations come out of that time. We want to do it so that parents feel a part of the group, rather than them being on the outside.

Another part we have developed is POD groups, rather than doing a main talk the break down into smaller groups with adults and discuss areas and pray if they want. This seems to be working brilliantly and we hope to establish this more as the weeks go on.

The most important part is that everyone seems to be having fun, thinking more about God and faith, both those from Church backgrounds and those not. Adults are learning from the young people and visa versa.